Bors Blog

Intelligence Failure

According to the right, the undie pants bomber is running a victory lap. Charles Krauthammer explains:

But the Obama administration decided to give him a lawyer and the right to remain silent. We are now forced to purchase information from this attempted terrorist in the coin of leniency. Absurdly, Abdulmutallab is now in control.

A failed bomber facing life imprisonment is "in control." His whole objective was probably to gain the right to remain silent and we played right into his hands. Want to call bullshit on Krauthammer and point out Bush's treatment of Richard Reid? He addresses that:

Wasn't the shoe bomber treated the same way?

Yes. And it was a mistake, but in the context of the time understandable. That context does not remotely exist today.

Richard Reid struck three months after 9/11. The current anti-terror apparatus was not in place.

You see, we had to follow the law back then because the Bush Regime had not yet completely undermined the court system a mere three months after 9/11. An illegal archipelago of overseas CIA prisons was not yet established. Torture was still a much sought after fantasy of Dick Cheney. So, while a mistake, it was understandable.